YANKEE LAKE Levy to play a key role in future

The village has improved its financial situation, officials say.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
YANKEE LAKE -- Success or failure of a 3.9 mill levy will help determine whether this 99-person village remains on the map.
The five-year levy -- the first new levy in the village for at least 25 years -- will raise $8,148 for general operating expenses.
Major expenses include paying the clerk's salary and the $1,900 fee for a state audit every two years, said Lisa Dickson, a councilwoman.
Fiscal watch
The state auditor put Yankee Lake on fiscal watch after the last audit released in August.
The auditor found the village, on Route 7 surrounded on three sides by Brookfield Township, had ended last year $1,034 in the red.
He urged officials to consider dissolving the village into the township because it offered residents so few services and spent so much of its budget on the clerk.
Subsequently, council put clerk Arlene Egelsky on a $100 monthly salary, which works out to less than when she was paid at an hourly rate, Dickson said.
Council now has met five of the six criteria for being taken off fiscal watch and brought the books back into the black, she said.
Part of the problem in 2001 were unexpected expenses from a road project, she said.
Yankee Lake contracts for fire and police protection with Brookfield and has no water or sewer service, or police department.
Taxes
Few residents want the village to dissolve, if only because they would have to pay higher taxes.
If Yankee Lake voters approve the levy, and the old 0.9-mill levy goes off the books, residents will pay on a total of 64.35 mills, including money for the county and schools.
Brookfield residents pay a total of 72.15 mills.